Mass-Market Magazines (part 2)

Growth at RR Donnelley was unprecedented after World War II. The reinvigorated consumer market required printing of all kinds, and this meant increased runs for existing RR Donnelley clients, as well as many new ones. Time, Inc., a long-time customer, moved Fortune magazine to RR Donnelley in 1948. That same year, a new client, Cowles Communications, signed a contract with Donnelley for the printing of Look. In 1954 the company became the printer of Sports Illustrated, a new Time, Inc. magazine catering to America's growing leisure culture.

Another coup for the company was securing the printing of the National Geographic Society monthly magazine in 1959. Society president Melville Bell Grosvenor wanted to print a four-color cover (previous covers featured only type, not images). RR Donnelley worked with National Geographic to test various papers, screens, and ink formulae to find a combination of rotogravure speed and quality production. In the end, RR Donnelley was able to print, bind, and mail 2.5 million monthly full-color copies of National Geographic.

RR Donnelley salesmen successfully captured three more large accounts-Scientific American, The New Yorker, and Sunset. At Scientific American, RR Donnelley successfully convinced the editors that the company could print scientific illustrations with precision. At The New Yorker, RR Donnelley engineers met the challenge of the magazine's extremely tight closing schedule with a technology that they had been investigating since 1955-facsimile wire transmission. After much testing, William Shawn, The New Yorker's legendary editor, was able to announce that the magazine was no longer being printed in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, but in Chicago, Illinois. The third major coup was Sunset magazine, which was published in San Francisco. Sunset's owner, Lane Publishing Company, was skeptical that the magazine could be produced in Chicago and distributed on the West Coast on time and for a reasonable price, but RR Donnelley once again overcame every objection. By the end of 1964, all three magazines were in production at RR Donnelley.